Friday, June 27, 2008

Sparkle to the power of 3!

Remember that time we said that thing about the thing and how we weren't doing any more Sparkle Friends and then it turned out we lied and now we've made a 3rd season!

Yeah....neither do we. Anyway, a brand spanking new series of Sparkle Friends is due to play on NZ TV in a few weeks, so we'll be posting the new episodes as they've gone to air.

We're pretty happy with the new episodes. We've pushed limited animation to its..... ah.....limits;) Anyhoo, here's the promo that's currently playing over here to wet your appetite.



IN OTHER SPARKLE NEWS!!!
So we just won a Freddie at the 2008 Channel Frederator Awards and were asked to contribute an acceptance speech, so check out the clip of us being stupid below! (we're at about the halfway mark)

Friday, June 13, 2008

Finally, something new from us!!!

Some people may be wondering what we've been up to recently, we've had a bunch of stuff on the go but the thing we're most stoked on is a pilot we've just finished up and it's for an idea we came up with a few years ago. The concept is a little odd and one that is a tad awkward to say out loud, the spark of the idea came from when Jeremy found out that when some woman give birth they also do a little poo.

And so our Flash animated 3 minute pilot is called "It's the Pughs" and is the story of a man so desperate for a son that after the birth of his daughter, decides to bring up the poo that follows as "his boy". The idea is based on our observations of the "typical" New Zealand bloke. The dad who wants nothing more that his boy to be the Rugby player he always wanted to be. As kiwi as this is, it seems to us this is a fairly universal trait.

As disgusting as the idea of raising a poo as a child is, we've tried to focus on the relationship between Rudy (the dad) and Peter (his poo son). As much as we embrace that the show will be a lot of gross poo jokes, we like to use the phrase "heartwarming toilet humour". As hard a sell as that is. We feel we've managed to touch on that in this short. We want people to love the little poo, then every now and then remember what he is and gag a bit :)

The Pughs are the quintessential "Kiwi family" and live in a fairly stereotypical NZ setting. We've never been ones for localising our work, as it's never really fit with the type of cartoon we love. But something seemed to click here and it all seems right. The "kiwiness" of the characters adds to their charm and should work on a odd level for people not familiar with the NZ way. We don't see "It's the Pughs" as being a show made only for NZ.

So enough talkie, please watch and let us know what ya think! We really want to make a series of this so feel free to leave comments, so we can show potential sponsors what ya think!!


It's The Pughs - Help Me Rudy! from Mukpuddy on Vimeo.



Here's some sketchy stuff too....



















UPDATE:
We've been lucky enough to have "It's The Pughs" featured on a couple of our favourite sites Frederator , Cartoon Brew , Cold Hard Flash and Drawn. A big thanks to Jeaux, Jerry, Aaron and Johnny, you guys rule!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

One more for the trophy cabinet...equals 2!

Well we've had to keep this under wraps for a few weeks and now we can shout it from the rooftops!! (remember capitals means shouting) WE WON THE KIWI AWARD AT THE 2008 CHANNEL FREDERATOR AWARDS!!
So firstly we want to give a huge thanks to the Channel Frederator team for nominating us in the first place. Fred, Eric, Jeaux and everyone else at "Red Robot HQ" have really supported us and our creations from day one and we will always be eternally grateful for that!

Secondly, thanks to everyone who voted. We're always pretty stoked with what we make but aren't to sure how it'll be received by the general public so it's super cool to know that you guys out there like our stuff too!!



Old Freddy is a little wary of his "upgrade"...